In ancient maps of the world, expanses of unknown territory might hold a warning to would-be explorers: Here there be monsters. For today's explorers seeking to navigate and understand the world of science, the monsters are the untamed collections of data that inhabit a largely uncharted landscape.

The April 6, 2004, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) features nearly 20 articles by some of tomorrow's mapmakers. Representing the computer, information and cognitive sciences, mathematics, geography, psychology and other fields, these researchers present attempts to create maps of science from the ever-growing and constantly evolving ocean of digital data.

"Science is specializing at high speed, which leads to increasing fragmentation and reinvention," said Katy Börner of Indiana University. "Maps of publication databases or other data sources can help show how scientists and scientific results are interconnected. Creating a map for all of science will require large-scale cyberinfrastructure," Börner said. "The endeavor will involve terabytes of data -- publications, patents, grants and other databases -- scalable software and large amounts of number-crunching power. Such computational effort is common in physics or biology but not in the social sciences. However, maps of science will benefit every field."

Several of the papers describe ways to analyze article collections and map out landscapes that humans can view. Some methods 'read' scientific articles and use a deep understanding of the content as the basis for a map. Other methods use relationship networks between the articles, such as citation of other papers, as the basis for a map. 'Process' models aim to better understand how the structure of scientific networks evolves over time. One researcher demonstrates that some combination of content and Web links or citation relationships needs to be considered, while others consider topics, newness, and linking to show how several such networks might evolve together.

Scientific landscapes might have hundreds of possible dimensions, presenting a challenge in creating two- or three-dimensional maps. Mapping methods must also identify the data-collection analogs of landmarks and borders. clusters in social networks can also be used to map scientific communities. A scientist may or may not be six degrees from Kevin Bacon, but scientists were about six coauthors away from any other scientist. However, these borders, like the world's political boundaries, change over time. Finally, in a digital landscape with hundreds of possible options for north or south, east or west, drawing a map with which human explorers can navigate from point A to point B presents another set of challenges. Researchers describe techniques to draw maps that highlight landmarks such as major research topics or trends, and show too how techniques from geographic mapmaking might be applied to science landscapes. >from *Here There Be Data: Mapping the Landscape of Science*. April 6, 2004

related context
> mapping knowledge domains. pnas online. april 6, 2004
> berlin declaration: science and culture accessible to all internet users. november 5, 2003
> science commons: building a free flow of knowledge. march 15, 2002

imago
> science landscape formations
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